Peter Steinfels

{{short description|American journalist and educator (born 1941)}}

Peter F. Steinfels (born 1941) is an American journalist and educator best known for his writings on religious topics.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, and a lifelong Roman Catholic, Steinfels earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and joined the staff of the journal Commonweal in 1964. He served as a visiting professor at Notre Dame in 1994–95 and then as visiting professor at Georgetown University from 1997 to 2001. From 1990 to 2010, he wrote a column called "Beliefs" for the religion section of The New York Times.{{Cite news |last=Steinfels |first=Peter |date=2010-01-02 |title=On Things Religious, Written and Unwritten |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/us/02beliefs.html?ref=petersteinfels |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

He has also been a professor at Fordham University and co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. Steinfels has written several books, including The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics ({{ISBN|0-671-41384-8}}) and A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America ({{ISBN|0-684-83663-7}}).

He has argued in favor of the ordination of women as priests and deacons, and has suggested that this could eventually lead to the creation of female cardinals.{{Cite web |title=Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PERSPECTIVES . Peter Steinfels . October 3, 2003 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week705/perspectives.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20120310185615/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week705/perspectives.html |archive-date=2012-03-10 |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.pbs.org}}

In 2003, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.{{cite web |publisher= University of Notre Dame |title=Recipients {{!}} The Laetare Medal |url=https://laetare.nd.edu/recipients/#info2003 |access-date=2 August 2020 |language=en}}